What's up, Doc?

       I was going to write over the weekend about two old-school dishes I had tried – a shredded carrot salad with currants and an iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing, both of which I enjoyed.
       But something seemed wrong about that, somehow. I started thinking about all of my entries for the last three weeks, and realized that I had enjoyed every vegetable dish I had tried since the month began.
       This seems a rather strange occurrence for someone who professes to not like vegetables.
       So what is going on here?
       Is it possible that what I thought of as a dislike of vegetables was just some kind of psychological hang-up from my childhood? You know…if my mother said it was good for me, then surely I couldn’t enjoy it?
       But that seems too easy. And honestly, at the age of 45, I like to think I’m more grown-up than that.
       And in reality, there have been plenty of times when I have made vegetables and found myself chewing them with such obvious distaste that Tom actually had to ask me to stop.
       Was it the power of my resolution that made me like vegetables, at least for this one month. That seems unlikely too. 

       Or if that was the case, then I also resolve to win the lottery grand prize this week.
       But what else might be making the difference?

       One possible answer might be that many of the vegetable dishes I ate over the last month were made with raw vegetables only – wraps, bean salads, carrot salad, simple lamb’s lettuce with dressing. Perhaps I have discovered that I do indeed like raw vegetables -- especially in the springtime, when everything is super fresh.
       But, then again, I had enjoyed the chile-cinnamon sweet potato dish, and the eggplant caponata too. And I had enjoyed cooked vegetables I ate in restaurants too.
       At the same time though, I still can’t bear the thought of steaming broccoli or cauliflower or even carrots or green beans -- which is how I often prepared vegetables before.
       And when I think about it, I couldn't even bring myself to taste the caponata until it was at room temperature.
       What’s up with that?